The Old Tennent Church

Artist Carrie A. Bowne Swift

Periodca. 1875 - 1895

MediumOil on art board

Dimensions8.8 × 11.4 in. (22.4 × 29 cm)

InscribedInscribed, "The Old Tennent Church."

ClassificationsLandscapes & Still Life

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Rulif V. Lawrence, 1932

Object number158

DescriptionView of a church with a five bay facade featuring three entrances, and a three bay side elevation. The gabled roof is shown as a brown-gray, with a single chimney located mid point on the ridge. An octagonal cupola on the left gable end is surmounted by a conical roof and a weathervane in the shape of a rooster. Two fully grown trees in leaf flank the church, which is surrounded by its grassy graveyard. A dirt roadway passes in front of the structure. The sky is a light blue with two flocks of birds in the air and a few puffy clouds.
Curatorial RemarksIn The Pictorial Field-book of the Revolution (1851–52), Benson J. Lossing referred to the Old Tennent Church as the Freehold Meeting-House and said: “it is of wood, shingled, and painted white; at present a very dingy color.” Inspired by the view of the church published in Lossing’s book and again in his June 1878 article on the Battle of Monmouth for Harper’s Monthly, this rendition of the building was painted well after 1859, when the church was renamed in honor of the brothers John and William Tennent Jr., two of its early pastors. In 1856, Carrie A. Bowne Swift was enrolled at the Freehold Young Ladies’ Seminary, where art lessons were part of the curriculum. By 1859, she was depicting landmarks associated with the Battle of Monmouth, producing drawings until 1870, when she began using oil. Her naïve style––characterized by minimalist compositions and clearly defined forms––is easily recognizable and of considerable charm. According to the Monmouth Democrat (1924), she was an “artist of great ability, excelling in landscape and marine views.” NotesLocated on White Hill in Manalapan, the present Old Tennent Church was erected during 1751–53 to replace an earlier building. A cedar shingled structure constructed in the Georgian style and painted white, the church (initially organized in 1692) has long been associated with the development of Presbyterianism in the United States. However, as reported by the Reverend Frank R. Symmes, “much historic interest is added to the . . . church through its connection with the famous field of Monmouth.” Old Tennent Church was known as the New or Upper Meeting House (to distinguish it from the earlier Lower or Scots Meeting House, some five miles away). Its role in the events of 28 June 1778 was determined by its location––at the junction of a road running between Englishtown and Monmouth Courthouse. Indeed, around 9:00 a.m. on the morning of 28 June 1778, General Charles Lee led an advance force of Continental soldiers past the meetinghouse as he made his way to the periphery of Monmouth Courthouse. A few hours later, George Washington stationed his troops on the hill to the east of the church, which served as a temporary field hospital for the patriot army. According to local tradition, musket balls pierced its walls, and Captain Henry Fauntleroy, an American soldier sitting on the headstone of the grave of Sarah Mattison in the adjacent cemetery, was struck by a cannon ball. When Lieutenant Colonel Henry Monckton (the gallant, thirty-seven year old officer in command of the second battalion of British Grenadiers) lost his life in the battle, the American forces buried him, with military honors, near the southwest corner of the church. Many Revolutionary patriots were also laid to rest in Old Tennent cemetery.

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